Hacking Gateway save game management

b00100100

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Has anyone devised a method for keeping track of which save files go to which games? One of the things I liked about DS saves was that your .sav file had the same name as your .nds game card file. That was nice because you knew what save game was which. With Gateway (and probably others), they are now not obvious. So does anyone have that mapping or the logic behind how the savegame file is created? Thanks.

If was asked how Gateway could be better
1. online support
2. have the save games use the same name as the game file
3. support for new games (they are good at this)
 

jcote1321

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Actually this might be useful information to have available. I've been burned in the past by playing games on DS then having the save file lost because the micro-SD eventually wears out, so I got into the habit of making regular backups of the save files. With DS carts this was easy since the save file was named the same as the game file just .sav extension, but now with Gateway I don't have an easy way to figure out which save corresponds to which game.

Further complicating this is the new NAND-based save support in 2.1 (BTW thanks Gateway, my son is playing Pokemon X and loving it!). I initially formatted a micro-SD card as FAT32, copied Pokemon X onto it, tested and confirmed it as working, and set my son up to play. Afterwards I read about the benefits of exfat, so I formatted a different microSD exfat, copied several games onto it including Pokemon X. When I loaded Pokemon X from that card, the save game was gone. I switched back to the original card and loaded, the save was available. Then I re-formatted the 2nd card, copied Pokemon X as the first game onto the card, and re-tested, the save was now available. So for NAND-based saves, there is apparently some correspondence between the file's position on the microSD card and the save file.

Ideally Gateway could provide information in the SD card that labels each save, but barring that, I think this thread could save us time googling around and potentially copying the wrong save files. I'll try to look at the 3DS's SD card contents tonight and see what the NAND saves look like there, and will report any useful information I discover.
 

gamesquest1

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Actually this might be useful information to have available. I've been burned in the past by playing games on DS then having the save file lost because the micro-SD eventually wears out, so I got into the habit of making regular backups of the save files. With DS carts this was easy since the save file was named the same as the game file just .sav extension, but now with Gateway I don't have an easy way to figure out which save corresponds to which game.

Further complicating this is the new NAND-based save support in 2.1 (BTW thanks Gateway, my son is playing Pokemon X and loving it!). I initially formatted a micro-SD card as FAT32, copied Pokemon X onto it, tested and confirmed it as working, and set my son up to play. Afterwards I read about the benefits of exfat, so I formatted a different microSD exfat, copied several games onto it including Pokemon X. When I loaded Pokemon X from that card, the save game was gone. I switched back to the original card and loaded, the save was available. Then I re-formatted the 2nd card, copied Pokemon X as the first game onto the card, and re-tested, the save was now available. So for NAND-based saves, there is apparently some correspondence between the file's position on the microSD card and the save file.

Ideally Gateway could provide information in the SD card that labels each save, but barring that, I think this thread could save us time googling around and potentially copying the wrong save files. I'll try to look at the 3DS's SD card contents tonight and see what the NAND saves look like there, and will report any useful information I discover.


The pokemon save is actually written in to the Rom file, copy the Rom he started on to the new SD
 

b00100100

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The save name is the games title ID, you can just type the file name into google and see what the game is.....still it would be better if it used the rom name instead.


Thanks for the information. It wasnt obvious that it was the game title ID. Best approach is probably using link Juins posted

3ds.essh.co
 

Cyan

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create a text file on your SD card (or any other file type, just en empty file without extension will do too)
00040000000FC600 Bravely Default.txt
00040000000FC600.sav
00040000000xxxxx Whatever game title
00040000000xxxxx.sav
etc.
use http://3ds.essh.co website to find the corresponding game.
 

jcote1321

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Thanks gamesquest1 for the info - I didn't think of it before, but the 2nd time I copied the file from the original SD card, which explains everything. Great to know, now I'll periodically backup the ROM. I should try comparing two files in a hex editor, maybe I can locate the save data and just extract it. Hmm, if that's possible, I could write an app that backs up and restores the save data in the ROM. I'm going to try that tomorrow.

Also thanks to juins for the link & cyan for the text file suggestion, that's exactly what I needed.
 

gamesquest1

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Thanks gamesquest1 for the info - I didn't think of it before, but the 2nd time I copied the file from the original SD card, which explains everything. Great to know, now I'll periodically backup the ROM. I should try comparing two files in a hex editor, maybe I can locate the save data and just extract it. Hmm, if that's possible, I could write an app that backs up and restores the save data in the ROM. I'm going to try that tomorrow.

Also thanks to juins for the link & cyan for the text file suggestion, that's exactly what I needed.

http://gbatemp.net/threads/way-to-distribute-the-removed-hidden-pokemon-from-power-saves.364150/
tool to extract save and restore save is there
 

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